Fowler School Board is entering the second phase of a bullying prevention grant. It's on year three of the program. However, the district is receiving drastically less funds than anticipated.

"It was supposed to be $25,000 per building per year for three years," said District Superintendent Alfie Lotrich. "That was a nice chunk of change. CDE awarded $7500 to our BOCES, total. For ten schools, at that rate, I don't know that we can even pay our building coordinators to do that ... So we may or may not accept any of that as we go forward."

Lotrich noted that BOCES is in the process of applying for an early literacy grant.

"I don't know if we'll qualify to be part of it or not, because they open these on a Friday and then they're due the next Friday," said Lotrich. The school district will attempt to get the grant, however.

Schiferl attended Monday's school board meeting to discuss the MAP program, a state program to help students and school districts overcome truancy. The program evolved over about 10 years into what it is today, a program for identifying familial issues causing truancy in students below the age of 17.

Schiferl said the program was flawed when it was created, but over time it's been whittled down and shaped into what's become the MAP program.

"If you identify a child, the Legislature - the Supreme Court of the State of Colorado - has made it very easy for you to get a child into the truancy program," said Schiferl. "You have no filing fees, no cost to you to do that. You do have to serve documents, and that might cost you a little bit of money."

The MAP program is so cost-effective that schools aren't even required to hire a lawyer to serve the documents.

"It's one of the very few situations in which the supreme court says a person from your school can represent your school," Schiferl said.

For outlying schools, Schiferl said that courts allow school representatives to appear by phone, "So you don't have to make that 30-mile trip to La Junta and back again."

The MAP Program focuses on three things for its students: increase attendance, help students achieve good grades and encourage good behavior.

"What we do is we tell them they have to come back to court every three weeks and face the judge, and we get a report, usually from the school, on how they did on those three things," said Schiferl.

But the in-and-out-of-court routine wasn't working for all the children in the program, so the MAP program tweaked things by introducing a points-based system. Students earned points based on their attendance, their grades and their behavior, as reported by the schools. If they earned enough points, they wouldn't need to go to court any longer.

Schiferl said he intended to visit all the schools in the county to give each school board the same information about the MAP Program.

In other news, Lotrich announced Fowler winners of the Elks' Hoop Shoot basketball free-throw competition held Saturday. The competition included children ages 8 to 13, and the winners will compete at Manzanola this upcoming Saturday.